Monday, November 13, 2006

By DUSAN STOJANOVICThe Associated PressMonday, November 13, 2006; 5:12 PMBELGRADE, Serbia -- Two former Serb commandos pleaded not guilty Monday to aiding in the 1999 murders of three Albanian-American brothers captured as volunteer fighters during the Kosovo conflict.Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic, members of an elite Serb police unit during the Kosovo war, are charged in the slayings of the brothers, whose bodies were dumped in a mass grave. They could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Illy, Mehmet and Agron Bytyqi left their home and pizza business in New York in 1999 to join the so-called Atlantic Brigade _ a unit of about 400 Albanian-Americans fighting on the side of Kosovo rebels seeking the province's secession from Serbia.